Japanese Navy Dagger

This is a nice 1883 patterned WWII Imperial Japanese Naval officer dirk. This example is of wartime construction with machine made blade. The blade shows the factory graining which is typical of later pattern blades. There is just a bit of age. It's never been sharpened. The blade length is 8 3/8 inches, while the overall length in scabbard is 16.5". The crossguard is brass. The grip is triple brass wire wrapped over white faux ray skin used on late war pieces. All grip wire and fittings are intact and quite nice! The saya (scabbard) is wood being leather covered with an intact seam down the reverse. It has detailed upper and lower fittings. The lock works as it should. Overall, a very nice example of a later Japanese Naval dirk. These are getting very scarce in this condition as most are at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean!